Discover Benelux | Amsterdam | Hospitality Profiles of the Month
A M S T E R D A M H O S P I TA L I T Y P R O F I L E O F T H E M O N T H , H YAT T H O T E L S C O R P O R AT I O N
Guest engagement and brand promises TEXT: BAS VAN DUREN | PHOTOS: ANDAZ HOTEL & HYATT REGENCY HOTEL
Arrive a visitor, depart a local. That is hotel Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht in a nutshell. As part of the famous Hyatt Hotels Corporation the hotel now has a younger sister after the opening of Hyatt Regency Amsterdam back in April. Where Andaz aims for leisure guests, Hyatt Regency has business in mind. Yet both run on the same principles where ‘guest engagement’ is highly valued. We visit the two hotels with director of sales and marketing Onno Muller.
Andaz Hotel It is a perfect tagline to describe the Andaz Hotel: arrive a visitor, depart a local. It has a homely feeling compelling you to invite your friends over for a beer 62 | Issue 44 | August 2017
and preferably one that is from around here. “It is the neighbourhood that’s been brought into the hotel,” says Muller. “Andaz is a luxury lifestyle brand, attracting people that aren’t looking for just a bed, but are additionally looking for inspired experiences infused with local culture. We achieve that by offering many local products such as beers from the local micro-breweries nearby or the food we serve up in a Dutch design environment conceived by Marcel Wanders.” Muller continues: “We see Andaz as a five-star hotel, but not the kind where all you have to do is comply with some sort of checklist. We value service, now more than ever, working with our most important brand values such as ‘guest engage-
ment’ that you’ll notice the minute you set foot in the Andaz. You will be immediately welcomed by one of our staff who’ll make direct eye contact with you and will try to establish a personal connection. A must as far as we’re concerned. You’ll see we run a boutique-style hotel. In a barrier-free environment, we check-in our guests on iPads wherever their needs require. This allows us to check-in business guests on the way to their room and take all the time we need with a family to tell them all about Amsterdam and the things to do. “Our guests here consist primarily of tourists, but I wouldn’t label them as the standard type of tourists. Those would be the type of people whose main focus is the city itself and the hotel room comes